The Effects of Wiki-and Blog-technologies on the Students’ Performance when Learning the Preterite and Imperfect Aspects in Spanish

Zusammenfassungen

This study investigated the influence of asynchronous computer text based technologies on the
students’ performance when learning the preterite and the imperfect aspects. The technology
used was a blog powered by Blogger and a wiki powered by Wikispaces. Two research questions
guided the study: Research Question 1: Is there a difference in students’ achievement levels in
Spanish preterite and imperfect between those using wiki-technologies and those using blog
technologies after controlling for pre-intervention achievement levels? and Research Question 2:
Are there differences in satisfaction levels for students learning Spanish preterite and imperfect
via blog technologies as compared to those learning via wiki technologies?
The research method used for this study was quantitative quasi-experimental design. The number
of participants for this study was 45 enrolled in two sections of college-level Intermediate
Spanish 2 (Spanish 204). Four instruments were used to gather the data of this study: a
demographic survey, a pre and post test, an attitudinal survey and a rubric to grade the
production component of the pre and post test.
Results indicate that there were not significant differences between students who use blog or
wiki technologies on performance levels when controlling for pre-existing knowledge. Results
also indicated that there were not significant differences in satisfaction levels between those
students using a wiki and those using a blog.